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Guilty Pleas Abound in Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Prosecution Joon H. Kim, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, reported that a doctor and four executives pleaded guilty to a $30 million scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid. The alleged scheme involved the operation of fraudulent clinics and a related ambulette company. As part of the scheme, the defendants paid cash kickbacks to elderly patients who were insured by Medicare or Medicaid and then billed those government payors for unnecessary medical services, tests, and supplies.

As Kim said, "These five defendants bilked Medicare and Medicaid out of millions of dollars for unjustified medications, procedures, and supplies. Medicare and Medicaid were established to assist the elderly and economically disadvantaged, not to serve as cash cows for corrupt professionals." Kim noted that five additional defendants remain under indictment and are scheduled to go to trial before U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield on April 23, 2018.